Senior Pastor & Pastor Emeritus

Welcome to the Gate City Baptist Church website!

If you are looking for a Bible-believing church where you can be a part of impacting the people of our region for Jesus Christ, you have found it! We invite you to stop in, worship with us, and discover how God can use you in His service in southeastern Idaho! Our people are real, our love sincere, and our God is wonderful!

We have small group Bible studies for all age groups at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays. This is a place where you can fellowship with other believers, share your insights, and learn from the insights of others. It is a place to belong, to be able to develop friendships, and to join with others in various types of team ministries.

Our weekly worship service begins at 10:45 a.m. on Sunday mornings.Dress is casual, the people are friendly, and practical truths from God's Word are shared to assist us in daily life whether at home, in the neighborhood, or in the community. We invite you to come be a part of a church that values God, His Word, one another, and becoming the tangible presence of Christ in Pocatello!

On Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m. we explore God's word in a small group, and spend time asking for God's intervention in the lives of people and the life of our community.

If we can be of service to you in the name of our Lord, please contact us!

A couple questions I have often asked in sermons and discipling classes are these: first, do you really love Jesus; and second, are you obeying His commands to you? Then I will mention that I have asked the same question in two differing ways.

In the latter part of John’s gospel Jesus says in various ways several times, “You will express your love for Me when you obey what I command.” Therefore, obedience to the Lord Jesus’ commands is a love issue. This is something many believers miss or choose to not understand.

Nasty truth: when I say I really and truly love Jesus and do not obey what He has commanded me to do, I reveal the nasty truth—I am a hypocrite. I say one thing with my mouth and do something else. Therefore, I now am trying to say that I am working on my love for Jesus and it is not complete as yet…not always successful in either remembering to say it that way or in obedience. I think you identify with that.

Now let us step back and look at this from an entirely different view. Can we obey Jesus’ commands and not love Him? Yep. Obedience without love is legalism. (I learned that from Henry Blackaby.) Think about it: I can obey His commands in my strength in order to show what a good Christian I am. And, I think we might be able to see examples of that in the Christian community. We certainly see many examples in the Jews’ keeping of the Law.

Consider the motivation in what I just said. Do you see pride there? It is the pride which the Bible consistently condemns. I will not explore it further, but leave it up to you for personal consideration. Why I do what I do in the Lord’s work is vitally important in pleasing God.

Hopefully, we are growing in our love for Jesus. May we all continue faithfully in our struggle because the evil one will make certain it is a struggle.